The whole “gang warfare” thing might seem a little trite now, but when I first played Saints Row 2, I cared about my custom character, my gang, and the status of the Saints because Saints Row took it seriously. Don’t even get me started on what Saints Row the Third did to Gat. This is a problem across the board, with jokes and memes coming before character development post-Saints Row 2. Johnny Gat is a good example of this - he’s almost a parody of badass characters, but there are also moments like the graveyard scene and Aisha’s death that connect you with him beyond the memes and funny moments. This silliness works so well because it’s also surrounded by serious moments and characters that you genuinely care about. A drone strike is cool at the start of the game, but it feels a bit boring when you can give it unlimited ammo and never worry about another weapon again. The dub-step gun is funny, but it’s a bit on the nose, whereas something like the Pimp Cane can balance the humour without jumping the shark (or in Saints Row the Third’s case, shooting shark guts from a blunderbuss). Sure, it’s silly, but it’s a little bit more grounded which honestly makes it funnier. When you weren’t taking down rival gangs, you were spraying buildings with waste, streaking down the streets, and running around in a hot-dog costume. To go from space aliens to petty crime might seem like a massive leap in tone, but Saints Row 2 was plenty silly enough in the first place. Superpowers are fun, but I’ll take grounded gameplay with a better balance any day. Specifically, the next Saints Row game needs to take more inspiration from Saints Row 2, which is still the best game in the series and the one that mastered the balance between serious and silly. RELATED: Koch Media Announces 'Koch Primetime' Livestream For Summer Gaming Fest Both of those conclusions screams that Saints Row is ready to return to a more gangbangers-on-the-ground approach.

Sure, that eventually led to Agents of Mayhem, but I like to think a more interesting outcome can be formed from it. After exhausting space and hell itself, Saints Row 4's conclusion implied the use of a time machine, whilst one of the more interesting endings for Gat out of Hell seemed to imply an alternate universe where Gat becomes a detective. We don’t know anything about the next Saints Row right now aside from the fact that it's in development, but when we last saw the Saints, they were at a crossroads of sorts. By far the biggest game under Koch Media and Deep Silver is the next entry in the formerly gangster series, and the direction it's going to go is completely up to the imagination at the moment. With Koch Media hosting their own live stream for Summer Game Fest, I can’t help thinking about one thing - Saints Row.

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